Russian President Vladimir Putin said the situation in Russian-held parts of Ukraine was “extremely difficult” on Tuesday while his Ukrainian counterpart drove home the message by visiting a frontline town that Russia has long tried and failed to capture.
Addressing Russia’s security services, Putin told operatives they needed to ‘significantly improve’ their work, in a speech that was one of his clearest public admissions yet that the invasion he launched almost ten months ago is not going to plan.
It followed a visit to close ally Belarus that fuelled fears, dismissed by the Kremlin, that the country could help Russia open a new invasion front against Ukraine. Some of the fiercest fighting in recent weeks in Ukraine has taken place around the eastern city of Bakhmut. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s office said on Tuesday he had visited the city to meet military representatives and hand out awards to soldiers.
Earlier, he renewed calls for more weapons after Russian drones hit energy targets in a third air strike on power facilities in six days.
Putin ordered the Federal Security Services (FSB) to step up surveillance of Russian society and the country’s borders to combat the “emergence of new threats” from abroad and traitors at home.
In a rare admission of the invasion of Ukraine not going smoothly, Putin cautioned about the difficult situation in regions of Ukraine that Moscow moved to annex in September and ordered the FSB to ensure the “safety” of people living there.
“The situation in the Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics, in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions is extremely difficult,” Putin said in a video address.
Pipeline blast
Russian gas flows were continuing via alternative links after an explosion occurred at a pipeline that goes to Ukraine for further supplies to Europe. At least three people died. The blast occurred in the Chuvashia region, east of Moscow. A fire was extinguished after the incident, which reportedly happened during scheduled maintenance.